From J. D. Hooker [6 August 1866]1
Kew
Monday.
Dear Darwin
Again thanks for your letter.2
You need not fear my not doing justice to your objections to the Continental Hypothesis.!3
Referring to p. 344 again, it never occurred to me that you alluded to extinction of Marine life— an isthmus is a piece of land, & you go on in the same sentence about “an island”, which quite threw me out: for the destruction of isthmi makes Islands!4
Bentham is away, but I will put your query on his desk.5
I surely did not say Azores nearer to Britain & N.F.L “than to Madeira”, but “than Madeira is to said places”6
With regard to Madeira Coleoptera I rely very little on local distrib. of Insects—they are so local themselves.7 A butterfly is a great rarity in Kew, even a white, though we are surrounded by Market Garden— all insects are most rare with us, even the kinds that abound on opposite side of Thames.8
So with shells, we have literally 0—not a Helix even, though they abound in the lanes 200 yards off the Gardens.
of the 89 Dezertas Insects—only 11 are peculiar.
of the 162 Porto Santan, 113 are Madeira, & 51 Dezertan.9
Never mind bothering Murray about the new Edn of the Origin for me.10 You will tell me anything bearing on my subject.
Footnotes
Bibliography
EB: The Encyclopædia Britannica. A dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information. 11th edition. 29 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1910–11.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Post Office London suburban directory: The Post Office London suburban directory. Kelly’s London suburban directory. London: Kelly & Co. 1860–1903.
Wollaston, Thomas Vernon. 1857. Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of Madeira in the collection of the British Museum. London: By order of the Trustees.
Summary
Will do justice to CD’s objections to continental extension theory.
CD misunderstood his question about Isthmus.
Responds to CD’s other points about Madeira and the Azores.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5182
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 102: 89–90
- Physical description
- AL 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5182,” accessed on 10 June 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5182.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 14